Embiid viciously elbowed Allen in Game 2, but was only called for a Flagrant 1 foul. Embiid also laughed about it with Ben Simmons as he was talking to reporters in his postgame press conference.

“If J.A. throws the same elbow and hits Joel, he’s getting ejected,” Dinwiddie said, via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. “That’s just kind of what it is. But we can’t play that game. All we have to do is go out there and play our game and be who we are, and we’ll be fine, just like we were in Game 1.”

Star players in the league are always going to be protected. That’s how it’s always been.

Allen isn’t a household name like Embiid yet. As unfair as that is, it’s something the Nets are going to have to deal with in the rest of the series.

The Nets won Game 1 and lost Game 2. They now have home-court advantage in the series. Thursday’s Game 3 at the Barclays Center will be the first playoff game in Brooklyn since 2015.